Have you heard of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation? It’s commonly referred to as the PBGC, and it’s a company that helps manage the pensions offered to employees across the country. The company states that as of 2014, tens of thousands of people who are owed pension benefits from their years of hard work have not been claimed their benefits. If you think you have a pension somewhere you’re not receiving payment from, you should learn how to find out and get the money you need. There are approximately 38,000 unclaimed pension benefits right now, and it’s time for you to get your money.

Search for Your Pension

The Pension Search Directory Website launched by the PBGC in 1996 is the place to go. You can enter your last name, your first name, your company name, or the state where the main office of the company is located. If you are due a pension you haven’t claimed, it will be listed right there. This search engine is free of charge and does not come with any hidden costs, difficulties, or time-consuming effort. You log on, your search, and you see if you’re listed in the results.

What Do I Get?

If you do find your name on this list, you could get as little as $1 or as much as $611,000 for your payment. It all depends on the pension you have, where you work, and what’s happening in your career. Most of these pensions have been closed because the people they were owed to were not located by the company when it was time to pay them out.

The average claim waiting for those who haven’t filed one yet is around $4,900. That’s a nice chunk of change, and it’s worth looking into if you feel that you might be owed money for a pension you never claimed. Just visit the site to see if you have a chance at claiming a pension you knew nothing about. It might be there, and it does work.

What if I Find My Name?

If you do find your name in this database, you’re going to follow instructions to claim your money. You’ll need to do what you’re told, prove who you are, and submit any of the necessary paperwork to receive your pension check. It could take anywhere from a month to six weeks to process your claim and verify you are who you say you are. Once verification is made, you will receive a check from the company that owes you money.

If you are currently eligible for the benefits on the site, you will receive a check for the amount in approximately two months. If you haven’t reached retirement age as yet, you will receive a payment when you finally reach that age. You cannot claim your pension money early and receive it now. You must wait until you reach the proper age.

How Come My Pension is Lost?

There are so many ways things get lost, and sometimes it’s nothing more than clerical or human error. Other times it’s because someone left a company and closed that account without realizing they had the account. The money is there, but there is no one to send it to. Other times there is a chance you might have lost out on it because the company who owed you the money did not have the money to issue the pension to you, and the PBGC purchased the pension and now owes you the money that goes along with it.

There are many reasons people lose their pensions or can’t find them once they’re due. You just have to know you have the option to look for them when it’s your time to find them, and you can get the check you’re owed. It’s helpful to check even if you don’t believe you are owed money or have a pension. You might, and you might simply be unaware of this. It’s not uncommon, and you shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to find free money owed to you using a free search and a few minutes of your time. You never know what you might find, and it might be a wonderful situation.